5. Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics of New Cities

Abstract

Who lives in the more than 400 new municipalities incorporated across the USA? The existing literature on municipal incorporations largely depicts these new cities as homogenous enclaves that consisted of wealthier, Whiter, and better educated residents than the unincorporated community from which they were created. Additional research had revealed that new cities and nearby existing communities were statistically significantly different along a range of socioeconomic variables, and another study found a relationship between income heterogeneity and the likelihood of municipal incorporation. The new communities incorporated over the last two decades are Whiter, older, have longer commutes, and have higher family incomes than the national average. Interestingly, they also had higher levels of poverty and lower levels of college attainment, which may be the result of a localized geography and the prevalence of new municipalities with the South Census Region. For the first time, research in this chapter compared new municipalities to their counties of origin (county from which they were created) and revealed that new cities are statistically significantly Whiter, better educated, and older when compared to the counties of origin from which they were established. In addition to the differences identified between new municipalities and the counties of origin, regional differences were also identified through the use of a t-test exploring the statistical significance between the two groups (i.e., NIMs and Counties of Origin by Region).